Sugar
by Imagodownwiththisship
Summary: AU. Iris' neighbor Barry comes to ask her for a cup of sugar to bake a cake for his cat. Part 1 of The Baking Series.


**A/N: Tumblr saved the day again. Those OTP prompts though. But I'm thinking of turning this into a series instead of a one shot. Barry and Iris belong to DC, I think? Or The Flash TV show. Something. I don't own them.**

"Hey, do you happen to have a cup of sugar?"

A slim guy around her age was standing on Iris' doorstep, rubbing the back of his neck self consciously and holding a measuring cup.

He was quite attractive though, with tousled brown hair and kind eyes, but Iris, ever the skeptic, still crossed her arms.

"Wow, I didn't think people even _asked_ that question."

He gave her a sheepish grin. Cute.

"Yeah, uh, sorry? Look, um, I don't think we've been properly introduced before? I'm Barry Allen. I'm kind of new to the neighborhood, and I saw you walking home and I thought—Oh God, not in a stalkerish way, I promise I'm not a stalker, you can check my record—"

Barry rambled on uncertainly as the pretty girl in front of him did her best not to laugh.

"Relax, Barry. I'm Iris West. And yes, you can have a cup of sugar, though I can't believe I would _ever_ need to say that. Just— give me a sec?"

She took his cup, gave him a quick smile, then disappeared inside. As soon as she left, Barry groaned and slapped himself in the face.

"Stupid, stupid. Do you have to mess up every conversation with a girl?" He muttered to himself.

When he lifted his face out of his hands, he realized with horror that Iris had seen his entire meltdown.

"Here's your sugar," she said. He didn't like the wide grin on her face.

Barry was tempted to slap himself again.

"Sorry, that was so embarrassing. I'm just going to take this sugar and pretend that this conversation never happened. I mean, not the part about meeting you, I didn't regret that just the um, that part," he finished awkwardly.

Iris flashed him another smile, and was about to head back inside when she paused.

"What are you going to do with that sugar?" She wondered.

Barry visibly gulped. "I-um-you know— I'm baking a cake for my cat?"

Iris tilted her head to the side. "Birthday?"

"No, uh, funeral. Oh wait, no! That's not what I meant I don't know why I said funeral he's not dead it's actually a hypothetical cat—"

Iris narrowed her eyes. Barry considered himself doomed.

"You don't have a cat?"

His voice rose an octave higher than usual. "Pshhhhh, of course I do." He added, more quietly, "in my head."

"So you didn't come here for sugar, I'm guessing?"

Barry shuffled around nervously. "Maybe not?"

Iris crossed her arms again. She was enjoying this far too much.

"So why, then?"

Barry had a deer-in-the-headlights look.

"Maybe, I, uh, saw that I had a really pretty neighbor except I didn't have a good excuse to come over and talk to her?" His voice was dripping with guilt.

She widened her eyes. _I was_ not _expecting him to say that,_ she mused.

He had his eyes shut tightly, like he was bracing himself for Iris to punch him. It was absolutely adorable in her opinion.

"Hey, want to grab a cup of coffee at Jitters?"

He snapped his head upward so fast she was afraid he hurt himself.

"Wait, you don't want to kill me?" He wondered in amazement.

She gave him a strange look. "Honestly, the fact that you tried to ask me for a cup of sugar so you could come talk to me is the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me."

Barry raised his eyebrows. Before he could start stuttering again, Iris saved him.

"See you tomorrow at 4 o'clock?"

"Yes. Absolutely. Sure. That's fine. Great, in fact—"

"Barry?"

""Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"Okay. Oh wait, did that break the "shut up" thing?"

"Barry?"

"Yeah?"

"Go home."

"Sure thing, Iris. Oh wait, do you want your sugar back?"

Iris made a shooing gesture with her hand. "Go."

But the half smile on her face showed that she wasn't annoyed at him. He was probably being cute again. He hoped.

He raised the cup of sugar in his hand. "Thanks for the sugar. And the date. Oh crap, did I just over assume that? Yeah, I'm just going to go now."

He walked back across the street, still blabbering to Iris.

Her dad popped his head out the door. "Who was that?"

Iris quirked her lips upwards. "Barry."

 **A/N: You have no idea how fun it was to write Barry's** **rants**.


End file.
